Transcription – Stormcloud 9!!

changing tack I have changed my idea from modelling a series of models to actually designing a series of aircraft and modelling from those designs meaning the work will be 100% my own aesthetic and progress.

Game Idea & Vehicle Design

The game idea is based on the idea of an alternate historic span, where fictional combat Airships are the main force of combat heavy combat, instead of surface vessels such as the Japanese Yamato, the Nazi German Bismarck, and the British Vanguard or King George V there would be airships designed with the intent of destroying other ships.

Battleship Yamato – Largest battleship ever created

Battleship Bismarck – Second Largest Battleship

Battleship HMS Vanguard – Britains Largest battleship.

Airships

There are many inspirational concepts of airships and some books and games/mods based on their beauty, we are entranced with their odd appeal and there close ties to steam punk or pre iron age technology, its a world that went up in flames on Thursday 6 May 1937 with the sudden and complete destruction of the giant German Hindenburg airship.

After doing some research around the lift capacity of airships, or more exactly Hydrogen and Helium, to lift a standard 80 Kilogram male off the ground using helium you would need a total of 5000 cubic feet of Helium, they tested this in the show Mythbusters where they wanted to replicate what made the Hindenburg burst into flames.

Hydrogen has a higher lift capacity than Helium does, however hydrogen is dangerously flammable.

To lift Hindenburg off the ground it needed 7 million cubic feet of Hydrogen, and if you look at the Hindenburg, it is without weapons, or armour, is extremely large, ungainly and vulnerable.

Adding weapons and armour to the airship would make the vessel have to become so large that it would no longer be worth flying in the sky since it would become the largest target in the world, unless the airship in questions didn’t rely solely on being a “lighter-than-air” ship or dirigible and had engines vertical like helicopter rotors to make the size of the airship decrease and also give it the ability to mount armour and weaponry, of course this is all very technical and I don’t need to think about the actual physics of the airships when im designing them, since artistically pleasing designs are rarely practical or make sense in real world terms, which is why it’s a fiction to begin with.

So as cool as they are, I don’t honestly believe that even if the Hindenburg didn’t crash that our future would be bound by Zeppelin travel, however, the death of the Hindenburg completely destroyed people’s faiths in airship travel and so attention was poured into creating other means of air travel. So if Hindenburg didn’t crash the creation of aircraft would possibly have been delayed a few years.

contrary to popular belief it was the Americans that had used and planned further use of “lighter than air ship” technology to a more military use and were the only nation to use Airships during World War 2, while German and British Airships remained soley for commercial and passenger transportation, Britain did use Airships as anti submarine patrols.

here is a really good FAQ on Airships, here the term Zeppelin is not used as it should be, and people (myself included) mistakably refer to all airships produced by Germany as “Zeppelins” when infact Zeppelin is a brand name.. like Nike, Gap, GoodYear etc. so in actual fact only Airships produced by the firm Luftshiffbau Zeppelin G.m.b.H. or any other firm that are liscenced to use the P

Zeppelin

acording to information sourced from here I have realised that people (myself included) use the term Zeppelin to refer to all Airships created by Germany when infact this is not the case. “Zeppelin” is infact a propriatary name, much like Gap, Hyundai, Motorola, Goodyear etc. meaning that only airships created by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH (Zeppelin Airship Construction Ltd) can only be given the title of “Zeppelin”

http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Misc/Airships/Airships.htm

this website displays many varients of airships planned and produced by America, Germany and Britain, this will give me a good direction to base the design of my own combat type airships from.

Types of Airships

all airships may look similar but there are a few different kinds of airship that can be identified

Balloons -> pressure-ridged -> semi-ridged -> ridged -> hybrid

Generally known as “lighter than Air” ships, meaning the total weight of the airship is lighter than the air surrounding it, therfore it becomes airborne. a smaller way to see this effect is trying to submerge a football in a pool of water, the football is much lighter than the water being displaced by it and therfore the football rises to the surface.

An unpowered airship is called a Balloon, unpowered meaning it doesnt rely on engines to propel it through the air and instead relys on air currents. So contrary to reality it is inacurate to give a balloonist the designation as a “pilot” since a balloon can not be piloted.

A balloon that contains means of being proppelled and steered is when it becomes an Airship, a Presure ridged airship is an airship that maintains its shape using the pressure of the gas inside it, the control cabin, engines and steering rudders/elevators are connected directly to the envelope of the aircraft, this class of airship is generally called a “Blimp”. They gained this name when on the 5-Dec-1915 a Royal Naval Air Service Lieutenant A. D. Cunningham playfully flicked a finger against the envelope of Airship SS. 12 at the Capel air station, mimiking the sound it maked as *blimp*, this wasnt made official until July-1943 when the U.S. Navy, inexplicably changed the designation “airship patrol squadron:” to “blimp squadron.”

Blimps are the most widley used type of airship seen today, used mainly as advertisement platforms.

Airships with a minor internal structure to support the envelope are called semi-ridged airships, these airships are also found to have a solid keel and gondola to keep a decent stability, this class of airship was very rare.

Riged airships are the most famous forms of airship, the most memorable Airship in history, the Graf Zeppelin “Hindenburg” was a ridged airship. Ridged aiships contain a structure throughout the entire interior of the envelop

The Setting

the war between the allies and the axis rages on in a slightly altered time span, where Flying Zeppelin/Airships are one of the main forms of combatant, technology, radar and sensory technology has been greatly enhanced and the pollution created from the flying machines leaves vast clouds of thick black smoke also known as Thunder clouds due to there ominous apperance.

Play as a young pilot rising through the ranks of either the German Luftwaffe, or the British Royal Air Forces – Cloud Navy and rise through the ranks while being pilot or captain of any vessel big or small that you see fit in order to bring turn the war in your favour.

Base to Base! Station to Station! Shipyard to Shipyard!

This is a screenshot taken from the Game Homeworld 2, it shows the shipyard vessel, used to produce any type of unit the player needs so long as enough time is allowed for it to be built. given that I want to make the game more fast paced having to rely on slow build times would decrease the overall pace of the game, waiting for things to be built in an RTS game isnt a problem since you have a whole base to manage, however when you are in a FPS environment the same 3 minutes it might take to build a tank would seem like an eternity. In Command and Conquer Renegade -which is essentially an FPS version of the original Command and Conquer 95- build times for vehicles and infantry are near instantanious, this will be the same in Storm Cloud 9.

This screenshot is relevant because this is more or less how the home bases for each side of my game idea will function, a large drifting platform with different sections of the ship designed to perform different tasks, however instead of just being a tiny section of the ship i want the subsystems to be whole parts of the ships design.

I have labelled the important parts of the shipyard that will most likely be included in my Station idea.

A = Fighter Production Subsystem

This subsystem enables the production of fighter and fighter bomber class strikecraft

B = Corvette Production Subsystem

In the Homeworld universe “corvette” is not used to refer to a type of car like we are commonly aware, a “Corvette” is a class of large strikecraft that are slower but more heavily armed and armoured, so in Storm Cloud 9 “Corvette” class will be converted to “Bomber” class, as this is the most appropriate real world equivalent in flying aircraft classes.

C = Frigate Production subsystem

A Frigate is the smallest form of capital ship in both Homeworld and in the real world. Used mostly by coast guard forces to catch illegal immigration and other smuggling operations that can happen via sea, Frigates are used where destroyers are either too expensive to run, or just are not needed.
In Homeworld they are only strong in groups.

This productive subsystem would translate into Strom Cloud 9 as Light airship production, enabling the production of the smaller forms of Airship, such as the Flak/Barrage Balloon, Torpedo Runner/Rocket Storm Balloon, ARLS/Cloud Breaker Canon, SkyEye Zeppelin/Jamming Frigate.

D = Capital ship Production

The subsystem responsible for the production of Destroyer classes and above, (Light Cruisers, Cruisers, Battle cruisers, Battleships and Carriers)
In Storm Cloud 9 this subsystem will retain the same function it serves in Homeworld, however like the others it will not soley be visable as a tiny section of the ship, but more like Command And Conquer: Renegades GDI Weapons Factory, will be a large and vulnerable section of the station that if destroyed could be the nail in the coffin for that team.

E = Resource Drop-off Point

This section of the shipyard is where the team gathers its resource income to fuel their war effort, Storm Cloud 9 stations will also have a section of the station for this purpose, should this subsection be destroyed all income for the selected team will be halted, as it is done in CnC:R when a team’s Tiberium Refinery is destroyed.

F = Fire Control Tower

The station will have automated defences that will open fire on enemies if they approach the station, the FCT is like a command link to all the weapons on the station, destroying this will render the station defenceless and the team will have to rely on human player defences.
In Homeworld the Fire Control Tower simply creates a control radius around the ship and makes all allied units in the radius fire with increased accuracy.

G = Sensor Array

Sensors are very important to the war effort to stop enemies creeping up on your station they will be equipped with powerful sensors that display enemies with class icons in the players field of view so the player knows what kind of ship it is perhaps before they can even see them visually.

The games focus will be on base launched offensives to attack an enemy base somwhere in the region and bring it down before they clear you from the skies themselves, the bases will be floating Factory platforms, the player will have a range of aircraft to choose from each altered to this new age of aircombat. Aircraft spanning from ww1 biplanes to early jet fighters and giant capital class airships, famous aircraft from the war, such as the P-51 mustang, and BF-109’s He-111, Ju-88 and 87, Hawker Hurricanes, De Havilland Mosquito’s and many more!

The Stations them selves
Since I will be using inspiration from RTS sytle gameplay and translating this into relative FPS style, I will need to locate inspiration from structures that exist for the several types of subsystem that will make up the stations general appearance.

Strikecraft

Strikecraft are the most nimble of the playable units, their manoeuvrability ranges greatly but overall would offer much higher levels of movement freedom, slower and less manoeuvrable types would be better armoured and armed to compensate.

“Strikecraft” is a term ive taken from the Homeworld universe and refers to small single to quad engine fighters and bomber craft. Because of the scale from Zeppelin to fighter aircraft it is necessary to make it easier to group types together in large bands, Strikecraft or Capital ship. Spitfires, JU-87s, B-17’s and Avro Lancaster’s would all be known as strikecraft despite there large variation in size and use.

Strikecraft = Fighter and Bomber aeroplanes

 

both sides have their own speciallities in strikecraft combat, but they also share alot of similarities because these roles must be filled to have a fully functioning air force.

Capital Airships

Unlike strikecraft production, no capital ship is free for purchase, and if the Airship Factory subsystem aboard the station is lost no capital class ships can be built at all meaning it’s critical that this factory stays functioning.

Capital ships have vastly superior firepower and weaponry compared to strikecraft and losing the ability to produce Airships during the course of the battle would drastically decrease your factions chances of coming out of the battle victorious.

Storm Cloud 9 will be true to real life in terms of the gases that would have been used by axis and allied forces to create airships of the , meaning that German airships use Hydrogen and can there for afford to be bigger and more heavily armoured/armed, but with the drawback of extreme vulnerability to fire and ignition sources. and the Allied airships use Helium to lift there capitals and as Helium doesn’t have as great a lift capacity forces the Allies to rely on smaller ship types with the advantage that helium is not a flammable substance.

Luftwaffe 

-a little history-

The Luftwaffe was the name of the German Air Force, before – during- and a little after world war 2 and was under the command of a man named

Hermann Wilhelm Göring.

When the Nazis took power, Göring was Minister of Civil Air Transport, which was a screen for the build-up of German military aviation, prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles. When Hitler repudiated Versailles, in 1935, the Luftwaffe was unveiled, with Göring as Minister and Oberbefehlshaber (Supreme Commander). In 1938, he became the first Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) of the Luftwaffe; this promotion also made him the highest ranking officer in Germany. Göring directed the rapid creation of this new branch of service. Within a few years, Germany produced large numbers of the world’s most advanced military aircraft.

In 1936, Göring at Hitler’s direction sent several hundred aircraft along with several thousand air and ground crew, to assist the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. This became known as the Condor Legion.

By 1939 the Luftwaffe was one of the most advanced and powerful air forces in the world.

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Playable Strikecraft

Free aircraft

the basic levels of Fighter Aircraft are free to produce for both sides of the war effort and the player would respawn as a standard Light Fighter upon death, there will be no infantry based combat in this game, you cannot disembark from your aircraft or airship, this keeps the focus strictly on piloting your aircraft and fighting in the war at hand, free Aircraft are weak put can provide the 4 basic fighter requirements, Fighter Anti-Fighter, Fighter Anti-bomber, Fighter Anti-Capital ship, Fighter- Maintainence. there are a multitude of other fighters that can all perform these rolls better than the free craft, but they cost the player credit to purchase them. 

Light Fighter

Standard fighter aircraft, players spawn as this after death, very manoeuvrable and equipped with a semi powerful machine gun. Not to be underestimated with a skilled pilot. this fighter performs the very basic of the Fighter Anti-Fighter Aircraft.
Armament:
1x standard machine gun (Front)

Cost: 0
Hull: 200
Speed: 250 mph
Handling: Light
Sensor range: Standard Sensor

the standard light fighter will be a WW1, Fokker D VI aircraft,

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Fighter Bomber

Standard Anti-capital/ Anti-station fighter, equipped with very basic Air Torpedoes and a weak machine gun, alone are an anoyance as are most of the standard issue aircraft given to rookie pilots, however in groups it can quickly spell doom to even the most protectect capital ship.
Armament:
1x Weak Machine Gun (Front)
1x Air Torpedo mount

Cost: 0
Hull: 200
Speed: 200 mph
Handling: Medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Boxer Fighter

Boxer class are extremely fast aircraft with a shrapnel projection weapon, designed to approach bomber formations at speeds where bombers cant return fire and reduce the bomber to shredded hulks of falling metal, boxers can do a lot of damage but needs to be very close range to do so. Very effective in cloud cover. Only fighter capable of going faster than the Rocket Torpedo Plane, however like its bomber enemy because of the speed the aircraft can not manuever very well and relys on Jousting tactics.
Armament:
1x Boxer Cannon (Front)

Cost: 0
Hull: 200
Speed: 530 mph
Handling: Medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Skygineer

An aerial Engineer and maintainance aircraft that is armed with only a weak machine gun and an low grade electro tool for repairing allied aircraft in the skies, more specifically Capital ships and station subsystems, it is not only one of only 2 helicopters flown currently by the luftwaffe but also one of the only aircraft to feature a more sophisticated radar technology to detect enemies and keep the aircraft out of harms way as much as possible.
Armament:
1x Weak Machine Gun (Front)
1x Elektrowelder Turret (weak)

Cost: 0
Hull: 200
Speed: 360 mph
Handling: medium
Sensor: Broad Spec. Radar
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Advanced Strikecraft

The following fighter classes are much more adept at there specific roles than the free versions and many can fulfill more than the 1 designed roll, these advanced aircraft range in size, from heavy anti-fighter/bomber aircraft to large anti-captital class bombers. Advanced aircraft require much greater care in their construction and as such are only available if the Stations Fighter production subsystem is still functioning. Losing this will mean that all the heavier classes of aircraft will be unavailable for the rest of the skirmish, meaning your team will have to rely on other means to protect its base and to destroy the enemy’s base.
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Erosion Light fighter

Erosion fighters are nimble strike craft and relatively low in cost, they are equipped with a single machinegun that fires bullets containing highly corrosive metal acids, the impact of the shells do damage but on impact a potent mixture of chemicals is expelled from the shell causing a rapid corrosion/erosion effect on the target for short duration after the hit. Works best in warmer conditions.
Armament:
1x Acid Machine Gun (Front)

Cost: £75
Hull: 250
Speed: 380 mph
Handling: Light – Medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Cannon Light Fighter

An upgrade on the standard Light Fighter, the Cannon Light Fighter has armour improvements on its more critical areas such as the wing supports and around the cockpit. It is fitted with a larger calibre Armour Piercing machine gun. This does not hamper its manoeuvrability, one of the most effective fighters in production, used by both sides of the war. Very deadly adversary with a skilled pilot.
Armament:
1x Cannon Machine Gun (Front)

Cost: £88
Hull: 275
Speed: 385 mph
Handling: medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Missile Light Fighter

Light missile fighters are the scourge of the heavier fighter classes, armed with weak prototype tracking missiles they can attack other aircraft with near on perfect accuarcy almost everytime; their missiles are slow but can normally get the jump on any fighter larger than itself in fight. the only downside to these fighters is their relatively limited ammunition capacity.  
Armament:
1x Weak Machine Gun (Front)
1x Homing rocket Mount

Cost: £110
Hull: 275
Speed: 385 mph
Handling: Light – Medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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SkyFuse Maintainence

SkyFuse are the class that keep the frontline from moving back towards home, they are equipped with a weak machinegun and an upgraded Electrowelder to repair allied ships much more effectively than Skygineer’s, even in hot combat situations. The Aircraft maintains fair manueverability but greatly lacks any sufficient offensive capability,
Armament:
1x Standard Machine gun (Front)
1x Elektrowelder turret (strong)

Cost: £175
Hull: 350
Speed: 385 mph
Handling: medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Bombardier Medium Fighter

These fighters are equipped with fast burning missile technology; their missiles travel extremely fast but have no tracking capability, used in numbers they can quickly take down slow Zeppelin Capital class vessels or undefended station targets.
Armament:
1x Light Sky Cannon
1x weak machine gun (Front)

Cost: £200
Hull: 350
Speed: 370 mph
Handling: medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Erosion Medium Fighter

Improvements on the cannon used to fire the acid rounds of this specialist aircrafts weapons come at a moderate price, unit has an increased rate of fire. Weapon does slow damage over time for a short period.
Armament:
1x Improved Acid Cannon (front)

Cost: £225
Hull: 350
Speed: 370 mph
Handling: medium
Sensor range: Standard Sensor
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Sky Cannon Medium Fighter

Sky cannon fighters are built around an experimental aircraft weapon with a barrel as long as its range. Devastating anti-fighter damage potential this fighter is able to shoot at enemies from extreme ranges before they can return fire, drawback is the aircraft can’t hold much of the weapons ammunition, pilots are known as “Angel Snipers”
Armament:
1x Light Sky Cannon
1x weak machine gun (Front)

Cost: £250
Hull: 350
Speed: 340 mph
Handling: medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Sky Cannon kopter

Slow and ungainly but with a weapon as big as it’s ego to make up for it, To the Sky Cannon kopter  “Range is everything”, in groups they are even capable of threatening a Capital Airship, absolutely devastating to fighter craft, the mere fact that it is a helivopter means that they do not have to move to fire upon the enemy and can move freely in any direction, making them very dificult to bring down, no strike craft fighter has been known to take more than 3 hits from this cannon.
Armament:
1x Grand Sky Cannon
1x weak machine gun (rear)

Cost: £500
Hull: 450
Speed: 220 mph
Handling: heavy
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Dominance Superfighter

The most manoeuvrable heavily armed and armoured strike craft in the skies, it is an prototype rocket powered gunship class has both cannons and machineguns and fires them in tandem, capable of literally tearing down any fighters that gets in its sights. Can even be a threat to lightly armoured Zeppelin Capital ships.
Armament:
2x machine gun (Front)
2x cannon machine gun (Front)
1x cannon machine gun Turret

Cost: £500
Hull: 450
Speed: 390 mph
Handling: medium-heavy
Sensor: Standard Sensor

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Rocket Torpedo Bomber

Armed to the teeth with Torpedoes this bomber has a surprise waiting any fighter thinking of shooting it down, “it’s a lot faster than it looks”. The rocket bomber has impeccable forward movement speed for its size although turning and other manoeuvres are an altogether different matter, these craft are the most dangerous threat to slow moving or station targets.
Armament:
1x weak machine gun (Rear)
1x weak machine gun (Front)
3x Air Torpedo mounts

Cost: £500
Hull: 450
Speed: 470 mph
Handling: very heavy
Sensor: Standard Sensor
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Playable Zeppelin Class

Luftwaffe Zeppelins are designed for sheer brute force above all else, they are slow, large and heavily armed and armoured. Their combat focus is on powerful long ranged weaponry able to clear the skies of most other large ships within a few minutes, they are mainly vulnerable to smaller faster moving strikecraft since there overall size makes it hard to avoid torpedo and rocket fire, that being said these ships have enough armour to weather even the most concentrated Station firepower for a substantial period before being knocked down. An unavoidable factor in the production of these Zeppelins is the use of Hydrogen as a lift gas, should the outer layer be pierced and a balloonet ruptured, the ships chances of survival will be greatly compromised.

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Barrage Balloon

The Barrage Balloon is the Nazi’s answer to RAF-CN Strikecraft, able to lay down sheets of flak to break up large formations of RAF fighter and bomber wings. Similar to the RAF Flak Balloon in purpose however the Nazi variant sacrifices speed and manoeuvrability for armour and additional weaponry.
Armament:
2x Machine gun turret
2x Cannon turret
x4 Heavy Flak Cannon

Cost: 350
Armour: 10000
Speed: 170
Handling: Heavy
Sensor:
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Rocket Storm Balloon

A Refit of the standard Barrage Balloon to make it a more suitable anti-capital weapons platform.

Storm balloons sacrifice their main anti-fighter weaponry in return of four lightning rocket mounts, Like all Luftwaffe technology, Storm balloons have more armour than speed utilising longer range weaponry capable of engaging the allied airships at range, using its armour for any strike craft that may try to take it out of the sky.
Armament:
x2 Machine gun turret
x4 Lightning Air Torpedo

Cost: 500
Armour: 10000
Handling: Heavy
Sensor:
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Aerial Rocket Launch Ship

One of the most feared attack zeppelins in the sky. The ARLS can fire a shower of Long Range Air Torpedo’s in a salvo of devastating proportions.

From a screaming 10 kilometres away it can accurately pound allied stationary and slow moving targets, with a additional range of 4 kilometres when using unguided torpedo warheads, dropping allied armour from the sky before they even realise they are being hit.

These ships focus on Stationary or slow moving targets since the guidance of the rocket warheads has an accuracy of around 40% on a good day with clear weather conditions, like all artillery positions these airships are found far behind the front offensive line being covered from enemy return fire.

ARLS are helpless against close quarter’s attacks within 1000 meters and cannot easily engage Strikecraft unless they are at a great range and are moving in a steady direction.
Armament:
X6 Long Range Air Torpedo

Cost: 450
Armour: 9500
Speed: 130
Handling: Heavy
Sensor:
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SkyEye Zeppelin

The Luftwaffe centralise themselves on large slow moving heavily armed and armoured Zeppelins to take control of the skies and thus are prone to ambushes by the much smaller faster and more nimble RAF-CN capital ships, more specifically the Jamming Frigate that work in tandem with cloud cover to completely mask their presence from radar and visual identification.

SkyEye’s are purpose built for radar, radio communications and combat awareness, they are equipped with the most advanced array of sensory equipment on any Zeppelin used by any faction in the war able to send data to all nearby strikecraft and capital class ships pointing out enemy locations via the players radar, making the allied ability to hide greatly compromised.

The is ship is a utility vehicle and has only the bare minimum of weaponry installed, it helpless against all but the weakest forms of strikecraft, should always be just behind the front line.
Armament:
x2 machinegun turret

Cost: 800
Armour: 19000
Speed: 180
Handling: Medium – Heavy
Sensor: 1x SkyEye sensors array

Luftwaffe Cruiser

The Luftwaffe use only raw force in their designs for airborne capital ships and use this as there means to obtain victory, and this vessel is no exception.

The Cruiser like all other Luftwaffe vessels is not fast but will almost certainly destroy any allied ship in range that does not use its manoeuvrability to their advantage. Cruisers excel at medium to long range combat situations against Allied capital class ships, it is very weak against attacks from below and has only very basic close-quarter defences for repelling potential Strike craft hazards.
Armament:
x4 Cruiser turret
x1 Short Range Air Torpedo
x2 machine gun turret

Cost: 800
Armour: 32000
Speed: 100
Handling: Very Heavy
Sensor:
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Luftwaffe Battlecruiser

This ship was built to bridge the gap between the cruiser and battleship and provide a capital ship that contains firepower capable of threatening fighter swarms but still retains the hull strength and relative speed of the standard Cruiser. This variant is a serious threat to any organised strikecraft formations, merciless amounts of strikecraft weaponry can clear even large swarms of offending fighter planes in a short period of time. This capital ship has only minimal anti-capital capabilities and should mostly be used when strikecraft become a major issue, or when escorting battleship fleets.

Unlike most Luftwaffe airships the Battlecruiser has no significant vulnerable underside blind spots and can return fire in relatively every direction with frightening force.
Armament:
2x Light Cruiser Turret
6x Heavy Flak cannon
6x Cannon turret
8x Machine Gun Turret

Cost: 700
Armour: 32000
Speed: 120
Handling: Heavy
Sensor:
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Luftwaffe Battleship

The Luftwaffe Battleship is the epitome of the Nazi war machine in the skies, raw firepower atop the most armoured chassis ever to fly.

In Clear skies the battleship is uncontested in a straight fight, however the vessel is very hard to control and manoeuvre, so the battleship captains are normally given strict orders to head straight to the enemy stations position and to only use cloud cover when absolutely necessary or if it cannot be avoided.

Formations of Battleships are normally spread over a large range of altitudes and distances to avoid being ambushed all at once, and are normally never spotted without a sufficient number of strikecraft or anti-strikecraft fighters or Zeppelins.

Armament:
x2 large Battleship cannon
x4 medium battleship cannon
3x small battleship cannon
8x machine gun turret

Cost: 1500
Armour: 60000
Speed: 50
Handling: Super heavy
Sensor:
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Royal Air Force – Cloud Navy

the Royal Air force is common name of the British Air Force and was one of the most advanced during the war being one of the only nations to successfully test stable rocket powered flight in aircraft before the end of the war. The cloud Navy are the additional and fictional wing of the Air force that deals with the deployment of Capital ships and the fighters that support them.

Thanks to the american supplies of Helium -a powerful non flammable “lighter than air” lift agent- the allies have the ability to combat the German luftwaffe’s flying capital ships, although the lift capacity of Helium is much less than Hydrogen so RAF-CN vessels are generally much smaller in size compared to the Luftwaffe.
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RAF Playable Strikecraft

the RAF aircraft are more specifically designed to combat capital class airships rather than other strikecraft, of course the RAF has its fairshare of anti-fighter strikecraft but because of the ever increasing strength of the Nazi combat airship the Royal Air force are having to outfit their fighter and bomber wings to focus more on this increasing threat.

RAF strikecraft weaponry is more focused on rapid firing or incendiary based weaponry

Free Aircraft

Advanced Aircraft

Vulcan “Cyclone” Medium Fighter

As its name suggests, the cyclone is armed with a prototype super rapid firing machine cannon called a “Vulcan”. The title “Cyclone” comes from the speed and spin of both the Vulcan barrel and the aircraft propellers. this aircrafts weapon is designed to combat larger strikecraft and Airship classes, 2 of these aircraft have the potential to give a large capital ship a very bad day.  
Armament:
x1 Vulcan Cannon

Cost: 450
Armour: 300
Speed: 350
Handling: light-medium
Sensor:

Incendiary “Fireshower” Medium Fighter

 

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Flak Balloon

This is the smallest class of airship flown by the Royal Air Force. The Flak Balloon is an anti-fighter defence Airship; it is relatively fast for an Airship and an ideal armoured scout. These ships are very adept at engaging Fighter and Bomber class vessels but its weak armour means that a skilled Bomber crew can still take this airship down if its crew isn’t careful. This ship has no anti-capital ship equipment onboard and is helpless if engaged by a vessel larger than itself.
Armament:
x4 Heavy Flak Cannon

Cost: 250
Armour: 8000
Speed: 200
Handling: Medium
Sensor: Standard Sensor

The Flak Balloon is the airship I’ve decided to pick for my transfer into 3D, it is the right size, shape and type to be adequately converted into something built for combat that would be seen in the real world had Airships gone further in development in favour of airplanes.

The Flak Balloon is based on the real world U.S ZMC-2 class airships

http://www.nasgi.org/zmc2.htm

I have turned this airship into an airborne anti aircraft warship. The ZMC-2 was the only airship type ever produced with an entirely metal exterior instead of a cloth or other soft, because of this I feel it is the ideal type to be brought to the next level of artificial development with the addition of weapons and armour.

Below are the varying designs I have produced for the Flak Balloon, each based from the Right Orthographic view, seen here I tried to use 3 different ways that this airship might have been improved for combat duties

Design sheet (All types and varients)

Type 1 – version 1 

The first image is taken directly from the ZMC-2 design, ive tried to keep as many of the original parts intact, like the large number of elevator and rudder fins at the stern (back) end of the ship, I have added several features to the exterior of the ship, the main thing being an armoured belt around the centre of the ship which is also where the vessels heavy weaponry is connected, the four heavy flak cannons as described in the Airship’s description, the nose cone of the Airship has been beefed up to give the front of the vessel a more armoured appearance, this cone is connected to two arms that reach back and connect to the main armour band, the Gondola is connected to the envelope via cables extending down from the armour chassis. 4 engines at the stern the centre bands and a machine gun turret to the top band.

Type 2 – version 1

This second design was retains the centre armour belt from the first design as I liked this part, though the guns have been repositioned, the flak cannons are now at all extreme dimensions of the ship, built into the nose cone and the rear cone behind the rudders, and one on top and below the main envelope, i thought that repositioning them could make for a more interesting design. Because there is a turret on the bottom of the vessel now the Gondola was moved to a move forward position so as to keep the majority of the crew safe, this also gives the vessel a much more streamlined look, which is good for an aircraft. The 8 Rudder/Elevators have been reduced enlarged and decreased in number to the traditional 4 seen on most airships.

Type 3 – version 1

The third design is my least favourite, I was going for a more Barrage balloon look, with the much larger Rudders and Elevators, however when the weapons were added it became apparent that this wasn’t a good idea, none the less I decided to split the armour belt and spread it amongst the main hull of the ship, with the 2 largest sections being the anchor points for both the main Flak cannons and the secondary machine gun nests.
What I do like about this design is the way I merged the gondola into the ship so that there wasn’t an obvious weak point sticking out of the ship. this needed to be done because I had placed the turrets on the lower end of the ship in alignment to where the gondola would have hung.

 

Second thumbnail Set

With the second set I tried to improve on the previous 3 designs, keeping the bits i thought were good and removing the parts I didn’t feel worked so will visually. I am still working on the “3 types” the main different between them all being the location of the airship Gondola is either in its original position, fixed to the fore of the airship envelope, or it has been integrated into the envelope completely.

Type 1 – version 2

I decided to split the centre armour band into two half’s giving it a greater retro feel by adding connecting cables between them, after looking at the original ZMC airship I actually liked how it had 8 tail fins instead of the traditional 4 setup, so I gave it the original 8 back, I removed the engines from underneath of the envelop and connected them to the stern instead, meaning that if anything were to happen during a landing the engines would be safer, it also makes the airship look more aerodynamic.

Type 2 – version 2

This version was pretty much totally re-designed, I didn’t like only having a pair of engines on either side of airship, so removed them completely, after playing through Empire of Steel for a few minutes I found a good image reference for my design, the top of the airship has a cabin which also has propellers protruding from it, also in an anime I watched recently “Shakugan no Shana” an airship was used which also had this feature, I liked it so I implemented it into this version of my design (shown in examples below). i also added a smaller cabin just under the middle of the main armour belt. instead of having all 4 flak cannons on the main belt i tried to move them around a bit, so I kept 3 on the main belt and put one on the top side of the envelope above the main gondola, this is held in place by a series of cables to make it seem more retro.

I found after drawing a few of these and looking at airships in general that I dislike the way engines outside the airship are simply attached to the envelope via cables, I thought that for war purposes this flimsy design just wouldn’t be able to cope, so I added a third armour ring on the very back of the airship to connect the engines to.

Envelope cabin – examples,

Type 3 – Version 2.

My Type 3 plans had pretty much ran out as i developed the other 2 types which I prefer about 10 fold to this version, however still trying to keep its barrage balloon appearance i shortened the tail fins to keep them closer to the main envelope, the engines were split up and placed around the ship, I was going for the dual armour band again, only this time I removed all the smaller bands in-between which didn’t seem to make sense to me and replaced them with cables, on each band I tried 2 cannons and 2 engines, placing the engines on opposite sides of the envelope to the cannons on the same band, to prevent damage to itself. in the end I decided to cancel this version.

Third thumbnail set

the third set of thumbnails i am finalising my ideas and trying to decide what design is best by taking parts from the Type 2 and Type 1 and combining them to make my final choice.

Type 1 – version 3

Design wise I am approaching something I really like and want to make in 3D, so I haven’t changed the design much from version 2, I added a second belt of armour behind the Flak guns which connects to a tertiary belt at the stern which the engines connect to, something that I really liked about

Type 2 – version 3

This is the best design I have been able to come up with, it posses all of the strengths from my previous design, this design could also be called Type 1 – version 4, but because of the location of the gondola I made it type 2. I removed the top cabin as I didn’t believe this to be within the time frame I was working for, that being 1939, I could see something like this top cabin being implemented onto later versions of airships along that time scale should they prove worth building (which we know in our time scale it wasn’t) I spread the cables connecting the turrets out a bit so that they weren’t so close to each other and removed the lower half of the armour belt behind the gun line as I felt this was a little too much. Finally I moved the Gondola to its forward mount just under the nose of the envelope and connected cables to it from the centre belt.

Into 3Dii

using the basic orthograph of the ZMC-2 i jumped into Maya, using the original image to get the shape of the ZMC airship correct, after drawing and re drawing had skewed the shape. the tail fins were a bit of a hastle but I got them sorted in the end…

next i began to work onto the envelope, making an outline for the armour belt and any other attachments on that are connected to the airship from the outside.

due to only recently being able to get the design images onto my computer I had to keep looking down at the drawn pictures which were on my desk.

Saviour, surprise engine design!

I was watching anime to relax recently and during episode specific episode of “shakagan no shana” a Hikousen was used (japanese for “Airship”) which surprised me since the anime was nothing to do with airships or even aircraft or flight, yet this stylised airship was flying on my screen, so i carried on watching, i was stressing over how to build the engines that connect to the side of my airship, since i had seen Laputa Castle i nthe sky and didnt feel like designing it like Miyazaki did. In “Shakagan no Shana” it suddenly did a close up of the engines on the side of the airship, I couldnt believe my luck. below is the screen shot I took

 

Final Renders

Torpedo Runner

The Torpedo Runner is the smallest capital ship in the Royal Air Force Cloud Navy. The torpedo runner is designed to engage capital class vessels in hit and runs using its relative speed and manoeuvrability to evade the powerful guns of Luftwaffe capital ships whilst still getting some shots in their self.
Armament:
x2 Capital Air Torpedo

Cost: 500
Armour: 6000
Speed: 220
Handling: Medium – Light
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Cloud Breaker Cannon

CBC’s are the RAF-CN’s capital ship response to the ever thickening armour of the Imperial Air Force’s capital and stationary vessels.

It is the single largest cannon ever deployed on a mobile vessel and the second largest ever brought into the sky, the Airship itself is built around the weapon instead of the other way around. CBC’s are self loading aerial artillery units capable of pounding Imperial armour at a staggering 10000 meter range.

Because of how large the cannon actually is means that the entire Airship needs to face almost in the precise direction of the target and is very difficult for even skilled pilots to get a true aim and hit moving targets. The weight of the cannon meant that only minimal armour plating could be installed to still grant freedom of moving the ship. CBC’s are devastating against stationary or slow moving targets.
Armament:
x1 Cloud Breaker Cannon

Cost: 450
Armour: 8000
Speed: 100
Handling: Medium – Heavy

this Airship ideas main inspiration stems from the game Final Fantasy 7, in which is a cannon of simply monstorous proportions, this cannon it used to keep the planet destroying monsters know as “WEAPON” at bay, to which it does successfully. for most of the game this cannon is fixed to Junion Harbour, until it is moved to Midgar to fight the Diamond Weapon.

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Flak Destroyer

The Flak Destroyer is a heavily armoured anti-fighter defence platform; this airship normally accompanies RAF carrier and cargo convoys to deter imperial fighter and bomber wings from attacking.

They remain one of the most heavily armoured capital airships in production by the Royal Air Force and because of its light weaponry and smaller general size the ship is still able to turn and manoeuvre than the Imperial equivalent.

This ship has practically no hard offensive capabilities and is relatively helpless against Luftwaffe Zeppelins.
Armament:
x6 Heavy Flak Turret
x6 machine gun turret
x2 cannon turrets

Cost: 500
Armour: 18000
Speed: 160
Handling: Medium – Heavy
Sensor: x1

I would have designed this airship on the old British R-100 series of Airships for their basic shape.

here is a great video of the original R-100 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdPrUBkMgdE&feature=related

unfortunatly it too crashed and exploded killing everyone aboard.

here is an example of a design Ive done  just in case I decide to take this airship to 3D 
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Light Cruiser

Unlike the Imperial war machines, the RAF prefer the use of smaller and faster airships rather than the overbearing armour and firepower of the Imperial Zeppelins.

Light Cruisers combine the best mixture of affordability/speed/armour and firepower, making a capital ship that is hard to kill, harder to hit and has the capability to take down foes much larger than itself.
Armament:
x4 Light Cruiser Cannon

Cost: 600
Armour: 24000
Speed: 160
Handling: Medium
Sensor: x1
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Incendiary Light Assault Cruiser

For the RAF-CN the ‘fire ship’ takes on a whole new meaning. As the most heavily armoured capital airship flown by the allies this vessel remains one of the most deadly in the skies to date.

absolutely devastating in cloud cover ambushes this ship has a few fatal weakness one being that the range of its weaponry is extremely limited which is why although ungainly it is designed to get in close to enemy capital ships utilising its Thermite and napalm sprayers to literally melt enemy ships in midair, second is that it is tremendously vulnerable to attacks from below and third its lack of any decent anti fighter weaponry means it’s a sitting duck against strikecraft.

Its major plus is a that all Nazi Capital airships use extremely flammable hydrogen as the main lift agent, giving it the ability to take down any capital class vessel very effectively provided it gets close enough, once in range the enemy can normally no longer return fire.
Armament:
4x Thermite Napalm cannon

Cost: 700
Armour: 36000  
Speed: 140
Handling: heavy
Sensor:
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Jamming Frigate

An experimental airship utilizing advanced sensor technology capable of greatly reducing the sensor range of any enemy ship caught in the area of effect, causing confusion and destroying the Imperials ability to coordinate attacks effectively. 

Together with its 3 Capital Anti-capital Air Torpedo mounts and fast move speed the Jamming frigate is capable of striking hard at Imperial targets before they know what hit them and can return fire, deadly in clouds and thick smog.
Armament:
x3 Capital Air Torpedo

Cost: 900
Armour: 16000
Speed: 160
Handling: Medium
Sensor: x1 “Fork eye” Radar Jammer
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Equipment Sensors/Radar

Sensor equipment will be a key factor in the flow and overall turn of events inside the game environment, being able to spot an enemy attack on radar before it reaches your base will be critically important to the success of the battle.

England was the first country to successfully implement the Radar in active duty during World War 2 to detect incoming Luftwaffe bomber wave’s incoming from France, enabling the RAF to scramble and move to intercept the bombers and their escorts.
Radar was a key asset to the success of the defence of Britain and eventual allied victory of the Battle of Britain.

In Storm Cloud 9 sensors are just as important and range in strength and capabilities depending on the size of the craft being flown or its specific role.

how it could work.

information on the battlefield is extremely important and can be the death nail for a faction in a conflict, in games this can be depicted in a number of fashions,

1. Standard Player Radar

more common in RTS style games but is found in first person shooters also, in a designated corner of the screen there will be a square or eliptical scope showing coloured dots representing the players and objects in the game environment, some of which will be out of the players current FOV, but this scope will keep the player aware of his surounding area. found in both Timesplitters and Command and Conquer: Renegade, Ground Control 2 and many others, it is also found in racing games in the form of a track view so you can see where the other cars are on the track in relation to your current position.

2. HUD awareness

Rather than give you a specific place on your screen to look at to locate eneimes or allies that may be around you in games like Homeworld2 and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter the sensory information is passed striaght onto your FOV, so if there is an enemy behind a rock infront of you you dont need a little radar to tell you as it will bring up a marker showing you that the enemy is behind the rock. as shown below.

the problem with the above image is that yes we can see that there is eneimes ahead of us, but we do not know what kind of enemy it is, so therfore could have a hard time dealing with them. Homeworld 2 uses a different method of this, it not only displays where enemies in sensor range are, but it also has appropriate icons for all ship classes meaning you always know what your up against long before you would have to fight it.

I – Shipyard (mothership class vessels arent given an icon since they are easily identified)
H – Battlecruiser/ Dreadnought/ Battleship
G – Carrier
F – Platform
E – Destroyer/ Light Cruiser/ Cruiser/ Heavy Cruiser
D – Frigate
C – Corvette
B – Fighter
A – Resource collector 

I would prefer somthing more on the lines of the Homeworld 2 ingame awareness as shown above, that way players can always assess the situation and attempt to adapt to how the battle changes without the need to take up any addition space on screen with player radar displays

There are a number of effects that can change the efficiency of the sensors aboard a strikecraft or Zeppelin, things such as Cloud cover, stormy weather, and jamming signals created by some RAF-CN vessels.

Storm: -40% Cloud: -40% Jammed: -50%

Luftwaffe Sensor/Radar

Nazi’s German radar and other sensory technology isnt as advanced as its RAF-CN equivalent ship per ship, it is deemed of secondary importance with the majority of funding going to strengthening the ship hull and firepower overall.

Luftwaffe Standard Strikecraft Sensor

Fighters are fitted with very basic radio devices them to pick up the unique signature emitted by all Allied aircraft from up to 5 kilometres away. Due to its inexpensive construction this sensor is fitted on all low tier and free aircraft.

This sensor is prone to blackout occasionally and cannot detect signals from enemy aircraft meaning only Allied aircraft will show up on the radar screen.

The range for detecting allied and axis aircraft is different and allied units can be detected from much further away. The detection ranges are displayed separately for enemy units and for allied units.

Enemy Detection Range: 0m
Enemy Storm Detection Range: 0m
Enemy Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 0m
Enemy Cloud Detection Range: 0m
Enemy Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 0m
Enemy Jammed Detection Range: 0m
Enemy Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 0m

Allied Detection Range: 5000m
Allied Storm Detection Range: 3000m
Allied Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 1000m
Allied Cloud Detection Range: 3000m
Allied Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 500m
Allied Jammed Detection Range: 2500m
Allied Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 0m

Luftwaffe Advanced Strikecraft Sensor

This sensor is a much improved version of the standard strikecraft array. Manufactured for aircraft who’s survivability rates are much greater due to the increased cost in production.

Advanced sensors can detect allied signatures at twice the range of the standard array, and is also capable of picking up and tracking enemy signatures at very short ranges.

Enemy Detection Range: 1000m
Enemy Storm Detection Range: 600m
Enemy Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 200m
Enemy Cloud Detection Range: 600m
Enemy Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 100m
Enemy Jammed Detection Range: 500m
Enemy Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 0m

Allied Detection Range: 10000m
Allied Storm Detection Range: 6000m
Allied Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 2000m
Allied Cloud Detection Range: 6000m
Allied Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 1000m
Allied Jammed Detection Range: 5000m
Allied Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 0m

Luftwaffe Basic Zeppelin Radar

Zeppelins are much larger than any form of strikecraft and as such can afford to have much larger more advanced sensory equipment, Nazi airpower neglects the importance of battlefield intelligence in favour of unit strength and firepower,

Enemy Detection Range: 3000m
Enemy Storm Detection Range: 1800m
Enemy Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 400m
Enemy Cloud Detection Range: 1800m
Enemy Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 300m
Enemy Jammed Detection Range: 1500m
Enemy Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 0m

Allied Detection Range: 15000m
Allied Storm Detection Range: 9000m
Allied Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 3000m
Allied Cloud Detection Range: 9000m
Allied Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 1500m
Allied Jammed Detection Range: 7500m
Allied Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 0m

Luftwaffe “SkyEye” Radar and Sensor Array

Realising the fatal flaws in the majority of their Zeppelin designs the Luftwaffe created a Zeppelin specifically designed to make up for the lack of early warning sensory equipment aboard the current combat Zeppelin designs, thus creating the SkyEye. SkyEye is a high powered “any situation” battlefield awareness tool, most negative effects on common other sensory equipment have a much reduced effect on this sensor.

Storm: -20% Cloud: -20% Jamming: -35%

Enemy Detection Range: 10000m
Enemy Storm Detection Range: 8000m
Enemy Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 6000m
Enemy Cloud Detection Range: 8000m
Enemy Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 5500m
Enemy Jammed Detection Range: 3500m
Enemy Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 2500m

Allied Detection Range: 25000m
Allied Storm Detection Range: 20000m
Allied Storm + Cloud Detection Range: 15000m
Allied Cloud Detection Range: 20000m
Allied Cloud + Jammed Detection Range: 11250m
Allied Jammed Detection Range: 12500m
Allied Jammed + Cloud + Storm Detection Range: 6250m